MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs lackluster

Telecoms were the optimists among rate-depressed techs at midday Thursday. The Nasdaq sank 52.83 to 2,761.34, and the Dow Jones industrial average retreated 147.54 to 10,653.88.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index sank 5 to 298.83.

Trading volume was light, as many traders left New York City to avoid the effects of Hurricane Floyd. The bond market will close early Thursday because of Floyd.

NetSpeak Corp. (Nasdaq: NSPK), up 5/16 to 12 5/8, said it had cut back the scope of its alliance with Motorola Inc. in exchange for greater freedom to market its products to other suppliers. Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) skipped 1 3/4 to 88 3/8 and Bell Atlantic (NYSE: BEL) jumped 3/16 to 63 5/16.

AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) added 9/16 to 45 1/16. AT&T (NYSE: T) was gaining on news the company has reached a deal with British Telecom (NYSE: BTY), up 3 1/4 to 151 1/2, to combine their cellular operations and provide global wireless phone coverage.

Among other stocks in the news, Tektronix, Inc. (NYSE: TEK) was down 1/16 to 33 15/16 after it posted earnings of $9.5 million, or 20 cents a share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2000, a solid three cents above First Call's consensus estimate.

Inktomi Corp. (Nasdaq: INKT), down 5 1/32 to 124 3/8, said Thursday it has inked a deal to buy WebSpective Software, a provider of content distribution and tracking software, for about $106 million.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) dropped 1 1/16 to 130 7/8 while Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) jumped 5/8 to 5/8. Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) lost 15/16 to 46 1/2 and Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) sank 7/8 to 45 13/16. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) added 1/2 to 24 1/16 and Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) lost 1/2 to 74 7/8.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) slipped 3/4 to 69 3/4, Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) lost 5/16 to 66 11/16 and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) shed 5/8 to 27 7/8.

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) dropped 5/16 to 42 3/8. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) shed 3/4 to 91 7/8, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) lost 2 to 81, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) lost 1 1/16 to 20.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) lost 4 1/16 to 158 5/16, America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) sank 4 5/8 to 86 1/4 and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) slipped 2 1/16 to 63 1/2. Other Net notables included: Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), down 3/4 to 43, Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq: SEEK), down 15/16 to 29 11/16, Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), down 1/2 to 37 9/16, and Mindspring (Nasdaq: MSPG) down 3/8 to 27 3/8. eBay Inc.(Nasdaq: EBAY) down 5 1/64 to 146 63/64 and CMGi Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) down 3 5/16 to 82 3/16.